Room Temperature Based SnO₂/MoS₂ Chemiresistive Sensor for Highly Selective Detection of Acetone for Disease Management through Simulated Gas Mixture Analysis

Monitoring volatile organic compounds (VOCs), especially acetone, in human exhaled breath is essential for various disease diagnoses such as diabetes, lung cancer, and heart failure. However, the selective detection of acetone in complex gas mixtures under large humidity variations remains a major challenge. This report demonstrates a highly selective SnO2/MoS2 chemiresistive sensor for the detection of acetone in such complex mixtures with relative humidities ranging from 10% to 90% at room temperature. The fabricated acetone sensor exhibited an excellent response ∼13.56% at lower concentrations (100 ppb) of acetone with minimal interference from other tested VOCs (ethanol, methanol, toluene, benzene, and formaldehyde gas). Further, a simulated gas mixture at 90% RH (Relative Humidity) was used to generate a calibration curve for acetone monitoring showing a linear range from 100 to 1000 ppb with a LOD (limit of detection) of ∼26 ppb. Finally, a proof of concept for the detection of acetone in a simulated gas mixture was successfully demonstrated, which paves the way for the noninvasive detection of diseases through human breath analysis.